What would the world be like with out Free Trade?

Question

What would the world be like with out Free Trade?

Answer 1

There would not be an existance of small and midium enterprises. Business can become difficult for almost all small companies, also a lot of things can become expensive.

Answer 2

we will be like locked up in small cage.

Answer 3

The World is far from having free trade now.  There is free trade among some countries, but most do not have free trade.  So take a look at the World and you will see what it is like without free trade.

Answer 4

You mean like the way it is now?

Answer 5

c**p

Answer 6

The Japanese would starve and the USA would be without poison toys....  The Enviromentalists would be turned into fertilizer and we would be drilling for our own oil in Alaska.

  Refineries would be built and gas would be a buck a gallon.

Everyone in the US who wants a job can get one now...too bad we pay on "skill level".

  

  The rivers and the air would be cleaner with technology rather than politics.

Answer 7

The world has never had free trade. The big free trade boom was kicked off by Britain in the mid 19th c., and it lefted their population out of poverty. What we have now is managed trade, which is better than protectionism, but still leaves much to be desired.  Free trade is really about comparative advantage....which countries can produce a given product more efficiently. That will change as energy prices continue to rise, as they're part of the pricing of the goods.

Answer 8

A mess

With no competition why do the work or why even try hard; that was the problem with communism.  Who ever sets the price would keep it fixed no matter how much profit or loss is made.  There would be no incentive to open new store, sell new versions, and try to make it cheaper or even to bother with quality control; all things that happened under communism in Russia.  This is the primary reason why the economic system failed.  It was kept going for many years because the people running the system didn't want to admit failure AND they were essentially dictators so they dictated what happened.

Free Trade goes hand in hand with freedom because when you are free to set the price you can set what the market demands; you have competition and you incentive.  That is the key problem with a system like communism the only incentive is when someone cracks a whip over your head.  Incentive not only makes people try more, but it gives them the freedom to enjoy the benefits of their labors.

Riverrat brings out another good point if you have a free market then only the best get paid the best and those who can't compete either starve or move on to something else.

The free market isn't totally a good idea there are some problems with it and reasons why the government needs to be involved.  The government insures a stable economy and that the currency will be accepted worldwide.  They inspect the goods to make sure they pass quality control, they prevent interference with trade and protect the market from those who wish to use force against it.  Unrestrained capitalism isn't the best thing in the world, but if you use MODERATE government control over it then you have a good and very successful system.  The problem is defining that word ‘moderate’.  The stereotypical deference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans prefer as little interference as possible, while the Democrats are more interested in making sure the market is honest, has good quality control and doesn't do any harm.  In another words they care more about everything else except the free market and the Republicans care more about the free market than anything else.

aybabtu is wrong, currently most of the markets in the world are free; hence the panic in Nigera and the war in Iraq have put a lot of pressure on the supply of oil so the price increases even though the demand and the supply is essentially unchanged, in fact it is getting better all the time.

Answer 9

The U.S. (a leading advocate of free trade) would make more of the things we use and grow the food we eat here in our own country, giving employment to more of our citizens. Some things might cost more to buy, since people in other countries (like China) have lower standards of living and so they work for less wages. But our own citizens would be able to pay more for things grown or made in the US, because everyone would have a job, and so the pay would be increased so companies could hire the workers they needed.

Answer 10

Democrats.